Morning Coffee – Nov 28

Jarrett Jack said his first concern was to attend to his fallen teammate.

"My first priority is gong to see if he's all right," Jack said. "After I did that I saw Hedo (Turkoglu) go up there (towards the Celtics) by himself, so I ran up there as well. I think we all have each others backs. I think the majority of us more or less crowded around Chris just to make sure he was cool and just all right."

Raptors head coach Jay Triano said he wasn't impressed by Pierce's actions.

"I just don't think that's very sportsmanlike," Triano said. "Great play 0but I don't think you need to stand there and taunt afterwards."

Raptors head coach Jay Triano reached the 82-game mark in his NBA head coaching career last night. With the loss, Triano's mark is 33-49. Oddly enough, Sam Mitchell and Kevin O'Neill both had records of 33-49 in their first 82 games with the team.

Not sure exactly who he’s talking about because he wouldn’t names with his public criticism – if I had a guess, judging by the story and who spoke how, he was taking aim at DeRozan – and maybe it actually worked.

The game turned out bad – although losing to Boston at home is a rather predictable result – but the Raptors did play with far more verve and energy in the opening half than they had in Charlotte.

Wright’s seems to have become some of the conscience of this team and it’s good that someone’s speaking up. Now, if he was just a tad more productive in the actual playing of the game department, I bet everyone would be a little bit happier.

"They changed the way the game was played in the second half. They didn't let us catch the ball. They took us out of all our sets. They beat us. They took the game from us," said Wright. "There's no other way to say it – we just got punked. We've got a lot of good players on this team but we're going to have to come together or teams are just going to continue to run us over like this. It's not going to get any easier. We all have to look ourselves in the mirror and take that individual challenge."

Excuse Bosh, who has heard this vow of valiance before, if he sighed at the post-game line of questioning.

"I'm tired of talking about toughness," he said. "We talk about it too much. We talk about everything too much. We've got to stop talking about it and just do it."

"Just us talking to the team captains, going to them and me telling them, 'Hey, you've got guys in here eating popcorn and joking around before the game, and we go out there and lose by 40,'" swingman Antoine Wright said before the game. "It's a direct result of what's going on before the game, guys not coming in with the right mindframe.

"Chris is not that type of guy to directly say anything," Wright added of Bosh. "He talked to the right guys, and the message has been sent."

Pierce got hit with a technical foul for taunting after the dunk. The Toronto coaching staff got all worked up – either because the refs didn't call an offensive foul on Pierce for pushing off with his left arm or they were pissed at Pierce for taunting an injured player. Pierce reacted so quickly, I doubt he was aware Bosh was injured. However, be prepared for some criticism.

Paul Pierce threw down one of the better dunks you'll see this year last night against the Toronto Raptors, absolutely crushing Chris Bosh's face with a tomahawk jam. However, in what is becoming all too normal for the Celtics, he also acted like a huge jackass.

See, as Pierce went up for the jam, he kneed Bosh in the nuts, who crumpled to the ground. The knee was unintentional, of course, but Pierce staring down a writhing Bosh, was not. Unfortunately, no Raptors player decided to level Pierce for doing that. Makes me think Bosh probably won't want to remain a Raptor with teammates like that when 2010 rolls around.

Taking advantage of Toronto's inability to defend the interior, Perkins went a perfect 8-for-8 to score a season-high 18 points off both assisted dunks and post-ups, allowing Toronto center Andrea Bargnani just seven points in the process.

"We played them after they caught the ball instead of before they caught the ball," Raptors coach Jay Triano said.

"Doc said this needed to be a real power game," Perkins said. "I thought, go attack early. The only negative about this game is that we didn't really get any stops, it wasn't the Celtics defense tonight."

Bosh fell to the ground following the jam and Pierce was given a technical for taunting. Doc Rivers disagreed with the call and was also hit with a tech. After the game Bosh offered his perspective of the incident.

“I got kneed in my pelvic region,” he said. “I couldn't tell what was going on. I was looking at the ground pretty much.”

Wallace, however, had a different point of view.

“Oh somebody should have got some tissue to wipe Paul's butt because, you know, if you all get the meaning of that,” he said. “But it was nasty and I told him a couple of minutes ago, I said I didn't see any of the other games tonight but so far that's No. 1 for the week, probably for the month. It was vicious.”

"We scored the first couple of baskets and then we were startled a little bit offensively ," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "And their starting bigs didn't miss a shot. Both guys were perfect."

Chris Bosh had 20 points and 13 rebounds, Hedo Turkoglu also scored 20 points and reserve Jarrett Jack added 18 for Toronto. The Raptors have lost six of their last eight games, including a 116-81 loss to Charlotte on Wednesday night that was the worst in franchise history.

Turkoglu’s 3-pointer with 1:13 remaining gave Toronto a 55-54 halftime lead. Then, Turkoglu’s steal and dunk made it 61-57 1:22 into the second half.

The Celtics then made their defensive stand, as they went on a 15-1 run over a 5:32 span. Marquis Daniels’s layup off a Rajon Rondo assist capped a 25-4 run and gave the hosts an 82-65 advantage with 1:25 left in the quarter.

Last night was a prime example of how difficult a 13-point victory can be. The Celtics played little defense in the first half, allowing Toronto to shoot nearly 67 percent in taking a 55-54 lead. Boston began by hitting 12 of its first 13 shots but it meant nothing because Toronto countered with dribble penetration and 3-pointers.

Calderon had nine points, four assists and three turnovers and Bargnani had seven points and four boards, negating strong efforts from Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu, who each had 20 in the loss. After starting hot, Turkoglu didn’t help his cause by picking up his fourth foul of the night early in the third quarter, in which Toronto was outscored 33-17 and officially put to bed. In the past three games, the Raptors have been manhandled 105-64 in the third.

Excellent point about the Raptors lack of fibre by Captain Jack Armstrong after Chris Bosh got punked by Paul Pierce Friday night. The Celts are cocky, but personally I don’t think the facial was an intentionally dirty play – knees collide sometimes, but Jack adroitly pointing out that the only rallying Raptor was Jay Triano – who’s backing of his team has never been questioned. Dirty or not, T’s or not, plays like that need to become a rallying point.

The four-time All-Star sits down with Jonesy for a 1-on-1 interview. Bosh talks about how the team is preparing to face the Boston Celtics after a disappointing effort against the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night. He also talks about the difficulty of being on the road during Thanksgiving.

After the game's conclusion, during ESPN's telecast of the Thunder/Bucks game, ESPN likened the Paul Pierce dunk on Chris Bosh (I believe it could have easily been called an offensive foul) to Deebo punking Red in the movie 'Friday'. When the highlight showed Pierce flexing his right arm while standing over a fallen Bosh, the in-studio ESPN host quotes one of the movie's more popular lines when Red exclaims: "My grandmama gave me that chain!". To me that just said it all. Seriously. The Raptors were called out on international televison by the 'worldwide leader in sports' as being punked and bullied!